dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaWhat is the Fastest Speed at which a Single Electron Can Be Detected?
| Authors | Deepak S. Rao, Thomas Szkopek, HongWen Jiang, Eli Yablonovitch |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0507224 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0507224 |
Abstract
Electrometers measure electric charge, but there must be a fundamental speed limit to measuring one electric charge. Since there are no dimensional inputs to this question, the answer must be expressible in terms of the fundamental physical constants of Nature, e,h,m,c. In general the question should be posed without reference to any specific technology, but for definiteness, we analyze the field effect transistor, which is essentially an electrometer. In spite of selecting a specific technology, we find that the speed limit is related to a fundamental constant, the Rydberg frequency, or as appropriate, the semiconductor Rydberg frequency including the electron effective mass, and the relative dielectric constant. We do not know whether the Rydberg frequency represents the upper speed limit, but on dimensional grounds we claim that the final limit can only differ by some power of the fine-structure-constant.
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"abstract": "Electrometers measure electric charge, but there must be a fundamental speed\nlimit to measuring one electric charge. Since there are no dimensional inputs\nto this question, the answer must be expressible in terms of the fundamental\nphysical constants of Nature, e,h,m,c. In general the question should be posed\nwithout reference to any specific technology, but for definiteness, we analyze\nthe field effect transistor, which is essentially an electrometer. In spite of\nselecting a specific technology, we find that the speed limit is related to a\nfundamental constant, the Rydberg frequency, or as appropriate, the\nsemiconductor Rydberg frequency including the electron effective mass, and the\nrelative dielectric constant. We do not know whether the Rydberg frequency\nrepresents the upper speed limit, but on dimensional grounds we claim that the\nfinal limit can only differ by some power of the fine-structure-constant.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0507224",
"authors": [
"Deepak S. Rao",
"Thomas Szkopek",
"HongWen Jiang",
"Eli Yablonovitch"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"title": "What is the Fastest Speed at which a Single Electron Can Be Detected?",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0507224"
},
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